What happens when you cut a massive decades-old white wisteria down to the ground because it was strangling the house and covering all the windows?
Wisteria smothering the windows before I cut it down
Well, undeterred it puts on a surge of growth and creates a sprawling bush at ground level before climbing up the house again. Moral – if I don’t want something to grow I need to be drastic and do more than cut bits off when I see them.
So I made a decision and painted Roundup on the stump to stop it growing. We shall see.
Massive stump and branches which I am trying to discourage from growing again
What happens when you replace an old broken trellis with a new one and have to practically massacre a trachelospermum in the process and then tie it back up like leaning a drunk on a lampost?
Through the winter I thought it wasn’t going to make it but then in spring it burst into life and put on a ton of new growth round the base of the bay window and flowered as usual in June.
wonderful trachelospermum jasminoides taking its chance now the wisteria has gone
Moral – tough plants will do their thing whatever we do to them. Just give them time.
What happens when a gardener who came only once many years ago pulled the lovely clematis Montana off the top of the shed so he could paint the roof with something he said would keep the rain out?
Sad that no clematis will grow over the shed these days
Well what happens is that since then the clematis has refused to put one leaf on the roof timber and nothing I do will persuade it to clamber up and make a lovely pink roof for the shed. It now grows everywhere BUT on the shed roof. It even likes to grow inside the shed. Presumably there was something in the chemical used that repulses plants. Lesson learnt – don’t let strangers paint your shed.
What happens when you know you should cut a clematis down to ground level in spring but you think “that’s surely not necessary” and you only cut it down to tummy height?
Massive tangle of Class 3 clematis smothering an obelisk and climbing into the magnolia and not flowering much
Well, it grows stems about 15 ft long, tangles itself round everything within reach, makes a huge cloud of green, heads up into the magnolia tree and produces very few flowers. (none at all in this photo).
Moral – next year I will cut it down to a foot from the ground as the books told me to do.
What happens when you site a birdbath in a sunny spot? It goes not green but a slimy brown.
Horrible brown slime but the birds still seem to like it
The bath is coated in a thick layer of brown crud which floats about in the water. If I scrub it, more appears overnight. Some kind of chemical reaction I imagine – water plus sunlight plus neglect equals crud.
I would like to give the birds nice clean water to wash in but since they have a drink, then a bath and then poop in the water I’m not sure I need to bother.
Thanks for reading my Six on Saturday today August 4th and Thankyou to the propagator who hosts these blogs on this theme. Over on his blog today you can find other people’s Sixes.
